Monday, July 2, 2007

The US Middle East "establishment" - the academic Middle East community, insists that Iran is guilty of no worngdoing in Iraq or elsewhere. "Stuff happens" according to them. Of course, "Stuff happens" only if someone makes sure it will happen. Lots of people will try to ignore this BBC headline: Hezbollah 'aiding Iraq militants' because it doesn't fit their thesis. They will claim it is part of a Zionist conspiracy to get the US to attack Iran, and they will claim (and have claimed) that Iran does not control the Hezbollah.

It is hard to believe that most U.S. professors of Middle East - related subjects live in an alternate reality, but they do. Here's the story:

The US has accused Iran of using fighters from the Lebanese Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah to help Shia militants attack US forces in Iraq.

The information came from a top Hezbollah fighter recently captured in southern Iraq, an army spokesman said.

Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner said the suspect had been working for the Quds Force, an Iranian organisation linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Iran has always denied arming or funding attacks on US forces in Iraq.

Correspondents say these are some of the most direct accusations to date by the US military about how much the Iranian government knows about insurgency operations in Iraq. Sophisticate attack

Gen Bergner said the US had learned of the existence of three camps near Tehran where Shia militants from Iraq were being trained, a few dozen at a time.

The general also said Hezbollah's Ali Moussa Dakdouk - who he said was captured in March - was a liaison between the Iranians and a breakaway Shia group.

Gen Bergner said the group - led by Qays al-Khazaali, a former spokesman for cleric Moqtada Sadr - carried out an attack against the provincial government building in Karbala in January.

"Our intelligence reveals that senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity," Gen Bergner said. Mr Khazaali and his brother were captured with Mr Dakdouk, he said.

Gen Bergner said Mr Dakdouk had told his US interrogators that the Karbala attackers "could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds force".

Five Americans were killed in the Karbala assault, a bold and sophisticated operation in which up to a dozen gunmen posed as a US security team to gain access to the government compound. Hezbollah officials said they would not comment until they had checked claims Mr Dakdouk was a member of their group.